Travel advice: airport pick-up charges

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As we all know, when we use an airport, we have to pay for the privilege – in fees and charges added to our flight ticket. Although we are paying customers, we are also at the mercy of air traffic control, the ground handlers, immigration staff, baggage handlers – so much so that it is impossible to predict how long it will take us to get from the aircraft gate to the airport exit doors. So is it right that airports should charge people who drive to pick us up and take us home?

Sue Blacker, a reader from Redditch, doesn’t think so. She wrote to me because she was getting frustrated by the policy at Birmingham. She lives 30 minutes from the airport and says that the cost of being picked up by car has recently risen sharply.

“They have, over the past 12 months, increased their already hefty 'drop and go charges’: it now costs £1 for 10 minutes, £2 for up to 20 minutes, £7 for 30 minutes and £5 for each 15 minutes after that,” she says. “Recently we flew to France, and on the return journey I texted my brother to say we’d be on time but to add on a bit to allow for passport control. In fact, the plane taxied to the far end of the airport and we were bussed in. The queue for passport control then took 20 minutes (it was quiet). My brother arrived expecting us to be waiting, and the car park cost £12.”

Sue went on to wonder if airports might be manipulating the time it takes to get through arrivals to increase their car parking revenue. I don’t think so, but I do think it is unacceptable that access to airports should be charged for. As Sue also pointed out, it is very difficult, if you are driving a considerable distance, to time your arrival. Many drivers end up hanging around, trying to reduce car parking charges.

I had just this experience a few weeks ago, picking up a relative arriving at Stansted at about 11pm. As we live in north Norfolk, it would have been impossible for her to get to us by public transport – so there was no alternative to using the car. It is a two-hour drive to the airport, but I had checked that the plane had taken off before I left home. I arrived at the short-stay car park just before the plane landed, only to find that I would have to pay £2.80 to park for the first 25 minutes – rising to £5.30 for 50 minutes, and £9.90 for a stay of up to two hours. I thought it was quite likely that I would be facing a bill of £9.90.

Some belligerent instinct in me resisted being fleeced in this way, so I looked for somewhere else to wait. At the far end of the airport I found a wide area of tarmac nearby, and only a short walk from the terminal. I pulled up here until, before long, a patrol car ordered me to move, threatening to call security if I didn’t. This only increased my resolve to make my pick-up without paying.

In a nearby country lane several well-worn, muddy gateways and pull-ins were chocka with minicabs obviously playing the same game. This was not a very attractive prospect, and frankly, it looked like a dangerous place to stop.

I ended up in the car park of a fast-food restaurant near the mid-stay car park and finally managed to make my pick-up in the area where the patrol car had originally moved me on.

I asked a spokesman for Birmingham airport about the charges. He said it was forced to close the original drop-off points for security reasons, following the car bomb attack on Glasgow Airport in 2007. He said that the airport needed to start charging for the short-term car park to cover the costs of running it and to stop congestion at the pick-up point. He added that drivers could use the multi-storey car parks, two minutes’ walk from the terminal, for £3.50 an hour.

A spokesman for Stansted said since it banned the use of the ramp for picking up passengers – also for security reasons – all drivers have had to pay to wait and pick-up in the short-term car park. “Half of our passengers use public transport,” said a spokesman.

What about the other half, I say?

Below are the charges at Britain’s biggest airports. All except Birmingham offer some kind of free drop-off point within easy walking distance of the terminals, so the charges below relate to picking up passengers by private car:

Luton For 30 minutes’ free pick up and drop off you must use the mid-term car park (two minutes to the airport on a free bus transfer). The short-term car park by the terminal costs £1 (15 min), £4.80 (30 min). “Priority Set Down” area in front of the short-term car park, which is also available for picking up, costs £1 (10 min), but £80 if you overstay, and cars must not be left unattended.

Another reader emailed me about my article on drink-driving two weeks ago. Will driving bans and penalty points imposed in another country be applied on your British licence, he asked.

According to the DVLA, the UK has a reciprocal agreement with Ireland and the Isle of Man. If the offence takes place anywhere else it will not affect your UK licence – although it remains in force in the country where the offence took place, along with any punishments.

Our consumer editor offers insider tips to make planning a trip easier – and suggests innovative ways of making more out of your holidays. Contact Nick by email: nick.trend@telegraph.co.uk.